The Lamron loves the Earth—and so should you
Photo courtesy of Robert Tippmann/Pexels
Even the small actions you take can make a big difference. Demonstrate your love for our planet and everything on it and make these changes in your day-to-day life!
Earth: we all live on it. So why don’t we all seem to care about it? Phrases such as “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” “We only have one Earth,” and “Earth Day is everyday” may be things that we all commonly hear, but The Lamron feels passionately about actively working to truly value and live by these sentiments.
Posting our prettiest photos of the mountains, beach, and sky on Earth Day every year may be fun, and look nice on our Instagram feeds, but what truly matters is how we treat the Earth everyday—the whole Earth—not just the aesthetic parts that we post on Instagram.
A small step that every one of us can take each day to protect our Earth is recycling and composting. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that approximately 8 million tons of plastic fell into the Earth’s oceans in 2010 alone. Using reusable dishes and cutlery instead of plastic ones and disposing of plastics into recycling bins instead of trash cans are small, realistic steps that anyone can take. The SUNY Geneseo campus features many trash cans that have specific, labeled sections for waste, paper, and plastic which make it especially easy to recycle. Many public places also have designated recycling bins if you take the time to look for them, and garbage companies for our homes provide us not only with garbage cans, but recycling bins as well. It only takes an extra second to find a recycling bin for your plastic waste—and it is an effort that can do a world of good for our planet!
NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration further documents harm that plastics are currently causing on our Earth. Plastics and other litter in our oceans are beginning to form “garbage patches.” These are essentially where piles of waste and debris have collected in the ocean. They can spread widely across the oceans, spreading harmful microplastics along with them. This is just another example of how important recycling is.
Composting is also great for the Earth and easy to implement into our lives! Especially while we are at Geneseo, Letchworth dining hall has a specific bin to scrape food waste into to be sure that it gets composted instead of simply thrown away. For those who live off campus, or want to continue composting after college (which should be everyone), starting a compost bin at home is easy. Simply keep a bin dedicated for grass and leaf cuttings, and food scraps such as eggshells, fruits, and vegetables that can be dumped right back into the ground to benefit the soil we walk on everyday.
With the easy access we have today to the Internet, there is no excuse not to compost or recycle. Composting guides can be found easily by searching the internet, and many companies even offer environmentally friendly programs to help their consumers help the Earth. Nespresso offers consumers an option to send their Nespresso pods back to the company for them to be recycled. Madewell denim offers customers the opportunity to bring unwanted jeans into any Madewell store in exchange for money towards a new pair, with the old pair being recycled. All of this information is freely available in a matter of seconds by searching for it online.
While our technology can help us be better friends with our planet, it can also severely harm the Earth. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is extremely prominent today, but its impact on the Earth is even bigger. AI uses massive amounts of water—a resource which is already limited. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute explains, “3% of Earth’s water is freshwater, and only 0.5% of all water is accessible and safe for human consumption… A medium-sized [AI] data center can consume up to roughly 110 million gallons of water per year.” Limiting our AI usage is not only beneficial to our brains, but also to our environment.
Ultimately, these changes may seem small, but no effort is too small. While large factories and businesses may still continue to emit harmful pollution, the efforts we take as individuals can only help the Earth. To get others on board, and maybe make an even larger impact than we can alone, we can all take some time to speak to local representatives or senators and urge them to pass policy changes that require big businesses to be more environmentally friendly too.
Lastly, The Lamron staff wants to encourage everyone to celebrate Earth Day and honor why it was founded, still keeping in mind that Earth Day is every day. Earth Day was founded to celebrate positive climate wins and encourage everyone to keep working towards helping the environment; it is celebrated each year on Apr. 22, as the transition to spring begins and shows us the beauty Earth has to offer!